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by Devils.Angel.89
Summary: Harriet Walsh, a divorced mother of two children, will do anything to protect her babies from Walkers, Humans, Hurt... Even after she meets up with her brother Shane and his camp of survivors. Even though she tries not get come to attached to anyone, will she eventually have to admit that Daryl Dixon gets under her skin - in more ways then one. slow going DarylxOC pairing
1. Interstate

This is my first shot at The Walking Dead, so please be kind.

I **own** nothing, **apart from any OCs that I will and might add as the Story goes on**. For a start I will say that Harriet, Ryan and Tiffany are **MINE** and **will stay MINE**, even if I decide to **kill** any of them off. I will try to make everything as believable as possible.

Also I **have not** once read the Graphic Novel - I wouldn't even know where to get it, as I live in Germany – so I will try to stick to the Series and the Timeline I have found online.

Chapter One:

The world had gone to shit.

It had been about two and a half months since the virus had broken out and wiped out most of America. Those who had been lucky to survive this thing that killed people and then brought them back as the living dead, were probably doing the same thing she was. They were trying to survive one day to the next; without getting attacked and killed.

The last time she had heard from someone, was the night the military decided they were going to bomb the damn city. That was the last night she had heard from her brother and to be honest, she just hoped he was surviving just as well as she was. But then again if he made it into the city as he had hoped to, she doubted it. She had barely made it out alive, between the walkers and the bombs being dropped. And still she kept venturing back into the city; eyes wide open in case she spotted Shane or Lori… hell even Carl would be a hellava lot more than what she was going on now. She had nearly given up on hope, when she heard the gun shots and an explosion, from her hiding place near the city.

_The CDC! _She thought staring into the sky towards the smoke. _Fuck!_ That was her last chance to see if she could get a message to Shane before she left Atlanta for good. The Walkers were increasing and she didn't want to risk getting caught. Hell her ammo was low and she didn't really want to give up her gun just yet.

Slumping against the stolen Harley Harriet still stared in disbelief. Hell it was a good day to die; her last hopes of reaching her family had just gone up in smoke after all.

"Mummy?" a small voice piped up behind her, causing Harriet to turn on the spot. "Mummy, what's going on?"

It was the hopeless look in those deep brown eyes that made Harriet realized that they had to keep moving. There was no more CDC that would help them. Shaking her head Harriet crouched down to her daughter, "We need to keep moving baby."

"But mom –"an older boy – maybe around 16 spoke up from the nearest car, "You said we were going to the CDC."

Harriet sighed, "I know, hunny." Hopes were running low between the three of them ever since her ex-husband had deserted them in panic. _His ass was more important to him then his own kids_, she thought bitterly. "Let's hit the road before the Walkers decide to come this way." She added, her eyes wondering over to the smoke that now loomed over Atlanta. It would draw Walkers to it and she didn't want to be near when it did.

Piling her kids into the beat-up pickup truck she had refused to get rid of when the world went to shit, she closed the door behind her daughter. Tapping the hood of the truck she called out softly, "Keep in safe distance behind me, Ryan."

"Gotcha," Ryan replied and started the car. His face was a picture of determination, but she could see how scared he was. His eyes gave him away – _eyes very much like Shane's_, she thought sadly climbing on the stolen Harley.

Its owner wouldn't be using it anymore, so she didn't see much of a problem taking it. It might not be the quietest thing in the world but it kept her babies safe. She could ride ahead and check things out while Ryan and Tiffany followed her at safe distance. Nodding slightly she pulled in front of the Truck and together they headed out of the city.

_Crap!_ Was the first thing that came to mind when they hit a traffic jam on the highway. It looked like so many people had been trying to flee the city when the virus spread and got caught when the sick turned. It was a nurse's worst nightmare that much was sure. But that didn't matter anymore. She couldn't help the dead.

Stopping the bike Harriet just sat and listened for a few moments. No groaning, no growling… No telltale signs of Walkers. Maybe they could stop here and load the truck up with supplies from the other cars. It would help keep the kids alive for a while longer, if they had more food and water. Ryan had just pulled up behind and she could feel her son´s stare on her back, so she turned towards him.

"Get your stuff; we need to see what we can find."

Ryan nodded and grabbed the shotgun beside him, handing it out the window to his mother, before climbing out. His little sister followed closely, not wanting to be left alone in the car. Harriet tried for a smile but couldn't quite muster it.

"Stay close, Tiff." She said quietly walking towards the first abandoned cars, with her daughter close behind her she started looking for anything and everything that they could use.

Food, bottles of water, medicine, anything that looked like a weapon and batteries… hell she even packed a couple of mp3 players and iPods so that the kids could at least have some kinda fun. Her pack was getting quite full of things that could be useful when she heard Ryan call out from his look out position back at the truck. Grabbing her gun she half dragged Tiffany back with her, "What is it, Ry?"

"Cars." His voice sounded happy and Harriet had to admit so was she. More survivors meant not everyone had been attacked by the Walkers. But still she was wary; the Walkers weren't the only ones that were dangerous these days. Humans trying to survive could be worse if you let them.

"Get in the car and stay down." Harriet replied, already bending to pick up Tiffany. Terrified Tiffany looked at her mother, her little face covered in dirt and streak with tears. Those deep brown eyes filled once again as Harriet placed her under the dashboard making her heart clench and her throat close with tears of her own. "Shhh baby, nothing is going to happen, I promise." She whispered.

Shutting the door tightly Harriet turned to look at her son, no words were exchanged but Ryan knew the drill. If anything should harm his mother he was to take his sister and run as fast as he could. He didn't have to like the idea, but he knew that was the only way Tiffany would be safe. He dreaded the thought of Tiff being on her own in this kind of world.

Once both of her kids were hidden in the truck Harriet waited. Climbing onto the truck bed she looked through the binoculars that Ryan had collected somewhere. At the time she thought it was silly, but in moments like this she was glad she had them. Crouching Harriet watched as an RV, a motorbike and a car came closer as she didn't want these people to think she was a Walker and shot at her.

Harriet watched as the FV started smoking, looked to her like they had car problems. She shook her head slightly and watched as everyone stopped. The door to the RV opened and no one was paying any attention towards her, which meant she could watch the people and get a first impression of this weird group, before they got to close to her kids.

She watched as a guy walked out followed by Shane, then some Asian male… Suddenly she did a complete take back. _Shane!_ Her head screamed out before she could even really realize she was moving. She had jumped of the back of the truck as was weaving in and out of cars. She hadn't even realized that she had dropped her knife and the binoculars. _Shane! Lori! Carl! Rick! _Her mind was screaming, but she couldn't say a word. She didn't even come to a stop until suddenly she was staring at the point of an arrow.

"What the fuck?!" her voice came out in a snarl. "Go point that fucking crossbow elsewhere, cowboy, before I shove it down ya ass!"

Shane, Rick and Lori turned instantly to stare at the woman Daryl had pointed his crossbow at. The voice was way too familiar to not be someone they knew. Uncertainly Shane walked forward, his eyes widened at the sight of the speaker. She had her long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and she looked like crap but it was his sister. He grabbed her and pulled her into a huge hug which she returned, tears were threatening to fall. "Shane… Oh my god… Shane…" Harriet muttered.

"Ya know this lunatic?" the cowboy asked, his crossbow still pointed at her. Everyone else was staring at the siblings in disbelief. Lori and Rick smiled at each other and Carl was looking around, like he was searching for someone.

"Harriet's Shane´s baby sister." Lori explained with a half-smile.

Shane was about to say something when Carl interrupted, "Harriet, where are Tiff and Ryan?"

This confused everyone but the close group from Kings County. Harriet nodded towards her truck, "Told 'em to hide in the truck. Wanna come and get 'em?"

"Can I?" Carl looked towards his mother who nodded. With that Harriet and Carl walked off towards the truck. Everyone else watched Shane looked relieved as he watched Harriet go. She was alive, his niece and nephew were alive.

"So, your sister, eh?" Glenn asked looking at Shane.

"Thank God." Shane muttered before turning back to the RV. "We need to get up and running again and not stay out in the open." Obviously he didn't want to speak about Harriet. Daryl seemed to agree with him because he lowered his crossbow and started looking through a car.

"If ya can't find a radiator 'ose here, there's a whole buncha other stuff we could find." He pointed out. The others looked around, he did have a point. Carl and Harriet were walking towards them with Tiffany and Ryan with them. Carl was chatting along to Ryan who towered over Harriet by a head or two.

"We already started clearing out some of the cars," Harriet explained when she caught the gist of the conversation, although she didn't want to really get involved with this lot of strangers. For one she didn't know if she could stay with this group or if they would send her on her way – even if she was Shane's sister.

She had no idea who these other people were but the old guy smiled softly and even the others – apart from the cowboy – didn't seem too bad at the moment. She was seething at the fact that he had could have killed her with that thing and didn't seem to wanna apologize.

"This is a graveyard," Lori said, her face said what she was thinking and even though Harriet agreed with her, they probably didn't have that much choice. Everyone seemed to look at Rick for answers so she just waited it out. Even if no one wanted her to join them, she could at least get some more stuff for her and the kids.

Shane looked towards his sister, "What you got in the truck, Harriet?"

Ryan looked up from his conversation with Carl und watched his mother. She just shrugged, "Food, mostly, medicine that I stole from the hospital when the world went to shit. There wasn't much time to grab anything else when they started bombing Atlanta."

"Not many places were ya could hide without being killed or eaten either." The cowboy replied. "'ow did ya get out?"

Leaning back against a car Harriet looked over to him, he was taller than she was – but that wasn't very hard, with her barely touch 1,55m – her lips were pulled into a small smirk as she replied, "Ya think a girl can't fight her way out, cowboy?"

Shane exchanged a look with Rick, "Alright now." He said before Daryl and Harriet could get into a fight. Daryl did have a point though; Carol and Lori would have never made it out of Atlanta alive, not with two kids with them. Even though he knew Harriet was capable with quite a lot of weapons he had given up hope in finding her, after Glenn had found the apartment she had been living in empty and ransacked. "Let's get looking and then we can get moving again."

Everyone agreed and started to canvas out, looking in cars, siphoning fuel out of the cars standing around them. Carl and Tiffany stayed near their mothers and Carol tagged along behind Lori with Carl and Sophia. With Dale and Rick standing watch everyone knew they would have their backs watched. Together the Harriet and Ryan wondered off to collect some more things together when Shane and Glenn started getting excited.

"It looks like they've found water." Ryan said with a small smile. Harriet just smiled and carried on emptying the trunk of a car. Clothes, blankets and other things went into a suitcase next to her feet. Tiffany had found a doll as was playing with it beside Ryan. Everything seemed to be just fine.

And that was when all hell broke loss among the group.

Rick came running towards everyone, "Lori, Harriet!" he shouted softly, not wanting to draw attention to himself. "Get under the cars. Get down now!"

Everyone started to rush around, crawling under cars; Lori even grabbed Carol's mouth to stop her from shouting out to Sophia. Harriet grabbed Tiffany and shoved her under the nearest car before crawling under it herself. Ryan soon followed, lying down under the car next to it. The only for people Harriet couldn't see were Andrea, Dale, T-dog and the cowboy. But they could care of themselves Harriet gathered, after all they had survived so far.

Suddenly Harriet spotted T-Dog, blood pouring down his arm as he ran to hide from the Walkers. _Fuck, she thought, he was gonna get himself fucking killed! _

She pulled Tiffany closer to her body, covering the little girls eyes as the first Walkers went passed. Her eyes moved towards Ryan, who looked calm, to Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophie. Carl and Sophia looked as scared as she felt, same as Carol. Lori looked about ready to crack as well but she held it together for the moment. It was then that everyone heard Andrea screaming from inside the RV.

Not long after that things seemed to have gone quiet and Harriet let go the breath she had been holding. The whole thing couldn't have lasted more than five minutes but she was still freaked. Not being able to see if all the Walkers had finally gone freaked her more then she wanted to admit. Sophia started out from under her car, thinking the coast was clear but one of the Walkers heard her and she freaked out.

It started following her under the car, which made her retreat. Carol started panicking as well, but Lori shht her. Rick grabbed his gun and started out from under his car as Sophia managed to crawl down the ditch next to the highway. As Rick followed after Sophia and the Walkers the rest of the group crawled out from under their cars and ran towards the ditch.

"Oh, Lori, those two Walkers are after my baby." Carol said loudly, panicking. Lori grabbed her, forcing her not to scream out and draw attention to them.

As much as everyone wanted to follow Rick but not knowing which way he went to follow they were forced to wait. While Rick was gone everyone else either watched for Walkers or collected more stuff. Carol was staring into the woods until Rick came back without Sophia. Taking Daryl, Shane, Glenn and Harriet – on Shane's insistence and after she patched T-Dog up – with him, Rick heads back out into the woods again.

It didn't take them long to get back to the creek where Rick and told Sophia to hide until he had drawn the Walkers away. But Sophia wasn't in the hiding spot.

"Are ya sure it was here?" Daryl asked an uncertainty in his voice. After all it was getting dark and Rick wasn't a tracker like himself.

"I left her right here and took the Walkers off in that direction, up the creek." Rick explained.

"Great. Another crappy situation." Harriet muttered, leaning against a tree. Daryl looked at her, the way she was nursing her crossbow, it was like she had never done anything else but hunt.

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her to go that way," Rick pointed off in the direction of the highway. "And keep the sun on her left shoulder."

"Hey short round, would you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." Daryl turned his attention to Glenn.

"Assuming she knows her left from her right?" Shane replied and Harriet rolled her eyes at her brother. What child at the age of Sophia didn't know their left from right? _But then again, look at the mother, _Harriet thought before she mentally kicked herself for thinking it. It had only taken one look into Carol's face to know her – now - very dead husband was abusive. One sentence to confirm those thoughts but Harriet didn't have any pity for the woman. She had chosen to stay and raise her daughter in that kind of environment instead of getting out, getting safe.

"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick snapped.

Putting a comforting hand on Ricks arm Harriet spoke up, "Kids tired and scared, Rick. She had a close call with two Walkers. Gotta wonder how much of what you said stuck."

She couldn't do much more the reason with her brother's best friend while cowboy looked for a trail. A job she could have done just as well, she noted smirking. Not that cowboy knew this. Until she moved back to Georgia after her divorce from Brian she had lived in Texas, where she had to learn how to find trails, hunt and run a freaking farm, when she wasn't working in the local hospital or looking after the kids. Ryan could hunt just fine; his daddy was always taking out into the woods to hunt, unless it was Football Season.

"There are clear prints right here." Daryl interrupted, still looking at the ground. Everyone seemed relieved, they had something to go off, a lead in finding the scared little girl. "She did what you said and headed back to the highway."

Rick and Harriet walked through the creek over to him while Shane looked towards his sister for confirmation. Sighing Harriet crouched and checked the prints herself, "I agree with cowboy here, guys. Let's spread out. Let's go, she couldn't have gotten far."

With that she grabbed Glenn's hand and let him help her out of the creek. Daryl's mutters making her smile as she started to follow the trail. The guys all on her tail – apart from Daryl, he was checking the trail just like she was. _This is gonna be a bitch, _she thought placing her steps carefully. She could hear Shane speaking to Rick and Glenn following her and Daryl but she kind of blocked them out. They would only be a distraction and/or in Daryl's case a huge irritation.


	2. Lost and Found

This is my first shot at The Walking Dead, so please be kind.

I **own** nothing, **apart from any OCs that I will and might add as the Story goes on**. For a start I will say that Harriet, Ryan and Tiffany are **MINE** and **will stay MINE**, even if I decide to **kill** any of them off. I will try to make everything as believable as possible.

Also I **have not** once read the Graphic Novel - I wouldn't even know where to get it, as I live in Germany – so I will try to stick to the Series and the Timeline I have found online.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and a great new year so far.

Please R&R people, I would love to hear what you all think of this story.

Chapter Two:

It didn't really take that long following Sophia's footsteps, after all a little girl didn't really quite understand about how not to leave a trail. With Daryl and Harriet searching the ground and surroundings everyone was certain they would find Sophia, but the closer Harriet came to reaching the Highway the more she wasn't certain that Sophia would be found in one day. The little girl obviously was a fast runner – but even kids get tired right?

Suddenly Daryl stopped almost abruptly like he had spotted something which made Harriet think she had missed something at first. Then she spotted where Sophia had reared off the trial like something had scared her.

"It was going just fine until right here." Daryl said, crouching to look at the ground. Everyone else seemed to gather around the cowboy and Harriet just sighed quietly when she saw where the tracks changed. "All she had to do was keep going. But she veered off that way."

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked looking towards the way Daryl pointed and where Harriet was now looking for new tracks or any sign of a struggle.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her and she ran away." Shane said, looking towards his sister while she still searched between the trees, in case Sophia was hidden there somewhere.

"A Walker?" came from Glenn, panic starting to settle in his voice.

But Harriet shook her head as she turned took exchange looks with Daryl, "I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."

That was the problem, without knowing what scared Sophia it felt like they were all going to walk into an ambush of some kind and Harriet didn't really fancy come across more Walkers today. Plus she didn't like being away from her kids… anything could have happened on the highway without her knowing. Even though she knew Ryan could handle himself and still keep Tiffany safe after the herd passed through Harriet didn't want to take any more risks.

"So what do we do? All of us carry on looking for her?" Shane asked as if he could read her mind.

Rick shook his head, while trying to think of some way to stop a probable panic up on the highway. "No, you three go back to the Highway. People are going to start panicking, tell them we're on her trail and we're doing everything we can, but mostly keep everybody calm."

"We can keep 'em busy searching cars and maybe a few other things to keep 'em busy. Come on." Shane replied.

It didn't really take long to get back to the Highway, even with none of them speaking. While they were walking they were still looking to see if they could spot Sophia, with no luck. Shaking their heads each of them walked out of the woods, with Shane taking over the situation the minute he climbed over the crash barrier.

"Alright, let's start getting busy people." He called out to everyone. "Grab anything we could need from the wreckage and start moving cars out of the way."  
Harriet shouldered her pack and started looking for her kids – who none surprisingly were start in the RV with Lori and Carl. She didn't even have to say anything to Lori about finding Sophia but she was still ready to get started with helping gathering supplies, just like Ryan and Carl.

"Tiff, stay close." Harriet said smiling towards her little girl while walking between cars. They couldn't lose any more people and Harriet refused to even think about what Carol was going through, if it was Tiffany that was lost… no she wasn't even going to think about it. But one thing was for sure, she wouldn't be standing around doing bugger all while Rick and the Redneck searched for her.

"Harriet?" Shane looked down to where his baby sister was searching through the truck of a van. Tiffany was in his arms – playing with the buttons of his police shirt like she always did.

Wiping the sweat of her head Harriet looked up, "What's wrong?"

Her eyes started roaming the Highway for any dangers or maybe even Rick. But she couldn't see anything which made her relax slightly. Shane just shrugged a little and looked off towards the trees or – as Harriet noticed - towards Lori and Carl. "How did ya make it out, Harriet?"

She should have known this was coming, should have known one of them would come asking. Sighing she straighten her spin and looked Shane dead in the eye. But in her mind she could see the helicopters coming, the bombs being dropped, the panic as survivors had to decide between the walkers or death by bomb. She could feel her own panic as she remembered trying to get away from the hospital before the worst could happen.

Gulping she dropped her gaze and quietly spoke, "Things started happening way before it hit the news, Shane. People in the hospital started getting a fever and dying…" her breath hitched slightly as she remembered what had happened in Atlanta. "But they didn't stay dead. At first everyone just thought the machines were playing up, but the Walkers started attacking people, killing people."

Shane looked back towards her and frowned, he didn't like what he was hearing. But Harriet didn't even see it; she was too far away to even notice what was going on around her. "I should have turned around when it started, walked away, blew town, whatever. That would have been the smart thing to do. I guess I wasn't that smart."

Harriet shrugged when she meet his eyes. "They couldn't evacuate everyone at the hospital and I couldn't leave the kids to die. Some of the other nurses helped me locked the children's unit down, once things quieted down we took turns to look for medicine and food… Ryan called me every day, just for a few minutes just to let me know that the kids were safe. He had them locked in the basement of our apartment." A fond smile showed on her face as her eyes wondered to where her son was helping Carl gather some things from a nearby truck. "Stopped me from going crazy knowing that Ryan and Tiffany were safe, ya know? 'Bout three days into this shit Ryan rang again, but this time it wasn't Ryan on the other end. Brian had come to get us out of the city."

Shane frowned deeply at the mention of Harriet's Ex-husband. "How the fuck did he manage to get into the city?"

"The news had started picking up on the trouble; the military was called in to make a safe zone. They had started to clear the hospital of Walkers so we could get out and to safety. He was part of the volunteer cleanup crew, at least that's what he told me. From what I could gather everything was going to shit on the outside, more people becoming infected and even more had already turned."

By this time everyone else had started listening into to what she was saying, but Harriet didn't really care. "I'm not quite sure how it happened, but suddenly the hospital was overrun. Walkers were fucking everyway, Shane." She didn't need to say that this time she didn't stay at the hospital with the ill. "All I could think 'bout was if I was going to die that I would never have seen my babies again. The streets were worse than the hospital; if it wasn't the dead then it was the living. It was like World War 3 in there and it didn't seem likely that anyone would get out alive. Then you called." Shane remembered that phone call, it was the night they started bombing Atlanta. "You said you were coming to get me and the kids, get us to a safety zone."

Harriet shook her head. "I didn't even have the heart to tell ya Atlanta had been overrun. I just hoped ya would make it in time and we could all run. I had managed to get to the kids and Brian by then, we were trying to make a plan to get out. We were low on food but had weapons so why couldn't we get out and try to find a safe way to the Highway. Brian said it would be better if we waited till morning so we could see what was going on. But a lot of people never survived till morning."

"They bombed the city that night." Ryan said, his voice shaking with anger. "They didn't even give any survivors warning; they just flew in and bombed us!"

Shane and Lori exchanged looks; they had seen the bombings from a far and wondered what was happening. Of course Shane had worried because he couldn't reach Harriet after that, he thought his baby sister was dead.

"I decided we couldn't wait any longer," Harriet continued. "I grabbed everything I could out of the apartments, foods, water, the whole nine yards so we could get the hell out of dodge and what does Brian do? He fucked off while I was searching the building. Left the kids in the basement and ran off." Anger flashed in her eyes when she looked back towards where the city once stood in all its glory. "I didn't need to be told twice; I grabbed the kids, stole the truck and drove as fast as I could."

"Ran over a few Walkers while she was at it," Ryan said, a look of pride on his face. "Ya should have seen her Uncle Shane, this Walker flew straight into the windscreen and she just hit the wipers like it didn't matter."

"I did what I had to, to keep my kids safe." Harriet corrected before she started it search the car again. That was all she had to say on that matter, Shane and the rest of the group didn't have to know everything. Her kids didn't have to know everything. The stuff she had to do to keep Ryan and Tiffany safe didn't exactly make her proud of herself.

Guessing that was all Harriet was going to say about her escape from Atlanta the rest of the group started going back to their jobs. Shane laid a hand on his sister's shoulder and whispered, "Yer did what any of us would have done, baby."

Harriet just nodded.

The hours rolled by and there was still no sign of Rick and Daryl, everyone was still on edge looking over to Carol and the woods every chance they could. By this time Carol was starting to get even more worried and eventually she turned towards Dale.

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" she asked, her arms folded across her chest, worry etched on her face.

Dale turned towards her, trying to look calm. "We have to clear enough room so I can turn the RV round as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map."

"Going back is going to be easier than trying to get through this mess," Shane agreed and Harriet smirked slightly behind her hair. She had to admit as much as her brother tried to keep people calm, he wasn't every good with mothers of lost children, but rather than say anything she grabbed the basket she was using to transport the collected items to her truck.

Food, clothes, gas canisters and blankets were slowly filling up the cars and the RV. She had even managed to find some more meds to go with her already overflowing mass collection of drugs she had stolen from the hospital.

"But we're not going anyway without my daughter." Carol argued.

"That goes without saying," Lori interrupted as she walked passed.

And suddenly the whole world seemed to revolve around Carol and Sophia again. Harriet couldn't help thinking that maybe the woman was a liability to the group, she hadn't even seen the woman do more than panic since she meet her earlier in the day. Harriet couldn't knock the woman for worrying but the least she could do was give the rest of them a hand.

"Rick and Daryl, their on it, ok? It's just a matter of time." Shane said trying to calm Carol down, before she totally flipped.

Andrea lent up against the truck Harriet was emptying and spoke quietly, so that Carol couldn't here. "It couldn't be soon enough for me. I'm still freaked out from the herd that passed us by. Or whatever you call it."

Glenn wondered over towards both of the women, taking the bag Harriet held out for him, to put on the back of her truck and a bottle of water from Andrea. Standing up straight Harriet accepted the bottle off the blonde – who was still splattered with blood – and watched as Carol wondered back towards the crash barrier to stare off into the woods.

"Yeah, what was that?" Glenn asked. "All of them just marching along like that."

Harriet had to agree with Andrea and Glenn, she was still pretty much freaked out and while she was searching the cars, she was constantly searching for her kids as well, even though they weren't very far away. "Herd. That sounds about right."

"Like that night our camp got attacked. Just a wondering pack, just smaller." Andrea said frowning.

Harriet frowned slightly and looked off towards her kids once again. "Ok. Come on people, we still have a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go." She encouraged walking off towards some of the other cars.

Daryl didn't know how long he had been in the woods, with Rick on his tail, but with the blistering Georgia heat on his back and the night drawing in, he was certainly hoping to find Sophia soon. They were both as quiet – at least as quiet as they could be walking through the woods like they were. Daryl guessed them lucky that they hadn't come across any Walkers so far, but Sophia's trail was getting weaker, which worried him slightly – not that he would admit it in front of Rick.

"The tracks are gone." Rick said, sounding disappointed. But then again he didn't know what he was looking for.

"Nah, their faint but they are still there." Daryl replied crouching towards the floor, looking for anything that would lead them to Sophia. "She came through here."

"How can you tell?" Rick asked, still not so sure Daryl was right in what he was saying. "I don't see anything. Just dirt, grass."

Carrying on forward after Sophia's trail Daryl smirked slightly as he walked in a slight crouch. "You wanna lesson in tracking or do you wanna find that girl and get our asses off that interstate?"

Rick just shook his head before following the redneck further into the woods. He had to admit to himself that Daryl was right about one thing; they had to find Sophia and get back to the others, so that they could get as far away from the Interstate as possible.

It must have been late afternoon or pretty much early evening when Harriet caught something going on between Lori and Shane. The way her brother blew Carl off wasn't something that she was used to, he loved that kid. Lori, Rick and Carl were family to the pair of them but he had been acting strangely towards all three off them. It was one of the things that she noticed as soon as she saw them all together again. The minute Lori stepped away from Shane Harriet walked over to him.

"What was that all about?"

"What was what?" he asked, leaning up against the car he had been working on.

"The way you blew Lori and Carl off just now, Shane." Harriet could hear annoyance in her voice as she looked up towards her older – and probably stupid – brother.

"It was nothing, sis. I made a mistake, one that I admit to." He paused and looked towards Lori and Carl. Suddenly Harriet knew what had been happening in the last few months and what was happening now that Rick was out of his coma. "I have a few mistakes under my belt, Harriet. So do you."

With that Shane turned away from his sister towards the driver's door of the car. Stalking after him Harriet crossed her arms over her chest, "No debate there, Shane. Lori, Rick and Carl; their family, Shane. This needs to stop."

"Why do you think that I'm prepping my new ride, sis? I'm leaving." Her brother replied seriously.

"What?" Harriet couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I'm going for good." Shane explained, not able to look his sister in the eye. "I'm gonna quietly slip away, first chance I get."

"So yer just gonna up and leave me and the kids then?" Harriet hissed at him, her eyes blazing with sudden anger as she walked around the car after her brother. "We've just found you again and yer wanna fucking disappear?"

"Look, Harri-" Shane started.

"Don't you 'look Harri' me, Shane Walsh!" she interrupted. "What make you think for one second that Rick won't come after yer? That Ryan and Tiffany won't want answers that I can't even give 'em?"

"I'm leaving, Harriet and there is nothing you can do or say to stop me." Shane insisted.

Looking towards her brother in complete disbelief Harriet couldn't think of a thing to say to him. Shaking her head she walked off towards the RV, where some of the others were standing, watching what she was doing. Harriet guessed that they didn't quite know what to make of her just yet; after all she had only been with them for half a day, at the most. She didn't even turn around when Shane started the pea green car up and the radio came on. All while the others raced over to him, she stayed put leaning up against the RV, her eyes flashing with anger as she watched Shane climb back out of the car again.

Darkness had started creeping up over the top of the trees when everyone finally called it a day from searching through cars and wreckage. Almost everyone was tired, sweaty and hungry from all the work they had done, walking back and forth along the Interstate. But at least they had managed to get quite a bit of stuff they could use. Blankets, food, water, hell even pillows where now loaded into the convoy of cars they were using. Harriet had even thought about ditching her bike, it only used up more fuel as it was.

Carol was still stood by the side of the road, where she had been standing most of the day, while everyone else was working. But nobody dared to say a word about it to her and Harriet didn't think it was her place to make the woman join in the work. Hell she didn't own any of this group a thing and she still stuck around helping them. It wasn't until Andrea walked over to Carol to see if she needed anything did Harriet let herself feel any pity for the woman.

"It's late. It'll be dark soon." Carol said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.

"They'll find her." Andrea encouraged smiling softly at the woman. The two women exchanged a quick look before Andrea turned around and walked back towards the rest of the group. It was clear to everyone that the longer Daryl and Rick were gone, the longer they would be stuck on the Interstate with barely anywhere to hide, if they needed to.

That was when the next argument started up. Andrea had set her sights on Dale know that she had nothing else to do and it wasn't exactly going to be a pretty fight. "Where's my gun?" she basically snapped at the old man, which made everyone but Carol turn to look at her. "You have no right to take it from me."

Glenn almost ran from where he was standing next to Dale, but Dale himself didn't seem very concerned about Andrea's anger. He acted like he was waiting for this fight since the herd had passed through. "You don't need it know do ya?" he asked.

"My father gave it to me. It's mine." Andrea argued, still not getting the reply she wanted for Dale. He just looked to the ground.

"I can hold onto it for ya." He offered, which angered Andrea even more. It was like Dale wanted to protect her from doing something pretty stupid.

"Or you could give it back to me."

It didn't take very long for Shane to step over towards the pair of them. The noise Andrea was making could draw Walkers towards them that much was for sure. With the same cool manner he had used earlier to tell Harriet he was leaving as soon as he got a chance, he now approached Andrea and Dale, "Everything cool?"

Andrea turned towards him and snapped, "No, I want my gun back." Her arms folded across her chest like a stroppy child, which made some of the group smirk more than slightly.

Dale turned to look at Shane, "I don't think it's a good idea."

Trying to keep the peace Shane asked, "Why not?"

"I'm not comfortable with it." Dale replied, everyone could tell he was more than serious about his words, but Andrea just scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. She looked at Shane expecting him to back her up.

"The truth is; the fewer guns we have floating around camp the better." Shane said, making Andrea glower at him in anger.

"You turning over your weapon?" she sniped at him.

But Shane just laughed at her slightly, "Nah. But I'm trained in its use. That's what the rest of y'all need, is proper training. But until that time, I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for."

Harriet totally agreed with her brother on this one even though Andrea didn't like it very much. Scoffing she turned her back and walked off, anger still flowing off her as she kicked a stone into the woods.

"Ya mind tell me what all that was about?" Shane asked just as she walked up towards them, a crate of food in her hands. But he never got an answer as Glenn interrupted.

"Oh God! Their back."

Everyone turned towards the woods, all eyes on Daryl and Rick as they emerged out of the green leaves beside the Interstate. A quick head count told everyone that they hadn't found Sophia.

Tears flowed into Carols eyes and she started to panic, "You didn't find her?" she asked.

Rick sounded devastated when he replied, "Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again first thing at first light."

Now Carol started to come close to hysterical, "You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night out in the woods."

"The darks no good. We'll just be tripping over ourselves, more people get lost." Daryl explained, his crossbow was hung over his shoulder and even in the darkening light Harriet could see he had blood on his hands.

"She's just 12," Carols sobbed. "She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?"

Harriet reached Carol as laid both hands on her shoulders, both to restrain and support her. As much as she didn't think she liked the woman, only a mother would know what Carol was going through right now.

"I know this is hard but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick tried to calm the panicking woman.

Even Daryl tried his best, "And we tracked her for a while."

Now Rick turned to the rest of the group, "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl and Harriet know the woods better than anybody. I've asked Daryl to oversee this with Harriet."

Harriet's gaze wondered over to Daryl and they just exchanged looks. To her it seemed like Daryl was trying to size her up, so she only lifted an eyebrow towards him; kinda like she was asking him if he liked what he saw. He looked away clearly uncomfortable with the situation. That's when Carol spotted the blood on Daryl's hands and shirt.

"Is that… Is that blood?" she stammered, coming forward.

Everyone now noticed that Daryl was kind of splattered with blood, something which he wasn't when he left earlier in the day. While Carol's breath picked up in panic, Rick explained, "We took down a Walker."

"A Walker? Oh my god!" Carol interrupted.

"There was no sign it was anywhere near Sophia." Rick tried to calm Carol down.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked the question that was on everyone's lips.

Rick turned toward Daryl, who then frowned slightly. His eyes met Harriet's again and when she nodded he explained, "We cut the son of a bitch open. Made sure."

Even though everyone pretty much looked disgusted, at least they knew Sophia know that it wasn't Sophia's blood on Daryl's clothing. Lowering herself down onto the crash barrier Carol looked pretty much defeated by what was going on. "Oh God." She muttered, while Lori sat down next to her.

Suddenly Carol turned to look at Rick, anger was in her eyes as she snapped "How could you leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"

Suddenly Harriet opened her mouth, "Now hang on, Carol. If I remember rightly Rick went after Sophia, even though there were at least two walkers after her! He did what he had to save her life! All of us would have done the same!"

If Daryl hadn't come up beside her and grabbed her shoulder Harriet probably would have said a few more choice words to the stupid woman, who couldn't even look after her own child. While everyone stared at her she pulled her arm out of Daryl's grasp and stalked off, Tiffany followed straight away but Ryan stayed. "She's just worried about Sophia." He explained quietly before looking at Shane.

"How is she supposed to find her own way back? She's just a child." Carol sobbed.

Rick knelt down in front of Carol, "It was my only option. The only choice I could make."

Shane looked over to his sister, who was now sat on the RV stairs, Tiffany in her arms. "I'm sure nobody doubts that."

"My little girl has been left alone in the woods." Carol didn't seem to grasp that Rick felt bad enough as it is. Even after he walked away and Lori and Andrea started to pity the woman, she just cried. Even after everyone else had walked away, clearly upset at what had happened Carol just sat there with Andrea and Lori and cried.


End file.
